Luke 15:16-17

16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

We look at the prodigal son and instantly think of how he came back to his father. But I want to point out he didn’t get cleaned up after eating slop. How do we know? The Bible never mentions it. He didn’t prepare an excuse for leaving; it says he ran to his father, and when he was far off, his father saw him and rejoiced, 'My son is alive! Kill the fattened calf, get the family ring! My son is alive!' We get so caught up in the rejoicing that we miss the most important thing: the repentance. And I want us to look at something else - David, in Psalms 51, we recall the moment when he repents. But notice it doesn’t say anything about him washing up. Why is this so important? Well, in Judea and Jewish customs, it’s considered holy to wash up, to clean up, to rinse off, to become proper before coming to the father's house or entering into a time of prayer. I’m not talking about a bath or shower this morning; I’m talking about a moment when we realize it doesn’t matter how clean we appear to be, we are sinners in need of a savior. So David’s cry was the same as the son's - not just for forgiveness but also for cleanliness, to rid of the filth that was on them. David cried out, 'Cleanse me and wash me.' The prodigal son ran to the father, and then the father said, 'Give him all clean stuff.' See, the father cleaned the prodigal up, and David. Often times, we eat the slop of life, the sin that so easily entangles us, and we find ourselves trying to get cleaned up, if you will.

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I remember as a child, my mother would listen to the radio constantly. And many times I would find comfort in the songs that played; they became a therapy for me. And there would be times where the antenna would have to be adjusted. And just like us, sometimes we get out of tune with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and we have to be retuned so we can be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. But we grieve. We find ourselves grieving and missing the portion that God has for us. Psalms 73:26 says, 'My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.' But if we are grieving what God has given us, pushing it back because it may be uncomfortable, we may never find ourselves in tune. Because, like anything, if you miss a portion, you miss a lot. If you miss a portion of a movie or a song, you've missed something, and it doesn't make sense. But when we miss God's portion, it's because we have grieved the Holy Spirit. And that brings me to my second point: we don't seek. The book of Jeremiah 29:13 says, 'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.' But we have to seek Him in order to be in tune. Billy Graham said, 'The sweet, sweet spirit will constantly be found if we seek it.' Then we adjust. In order to adjust our spiritual antennas, we have to simply dive into the Word of God.

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Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Over the years, we have had a great divide among us, not just spiritually, but also in the flesh. But we have many who have been a part of the church, worked in the church, and in this realm, we couldn't do it without you. But I also want to bring this to your mind: we are not just a Sunday family. So many of you fill in the gaps for others with phone calls and daily check-ins. I often compliment on how tight-knit Protemus is, and I say it's a family of people who love people, and just like any family, a little dysfunctional at times. But nonetheless, a family.

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